Next stop: Yellowstone

I'm starting to feel too much at home here in Portland. It's hard to remember that this wasn't the entire destination of the trip....

I've gotten nearly everything I needed here in Portland. For the first time ever, I'm now laden with a cellular telephone. I've also beefed up the laptop to 2gb of RAM, have web space for the photos coming tomorrow, a stable e-mail account, etc., etc... All there is left to pick up is a set of tools.

I'll be loading on Monday, and pulling out on Tuesday morning, headed for Yellowstone -- mostly because it's one day east and has lots of camping, but I've always been interested in nature's freak show there. Since my coast-to-coast trip has turned into a coast-to-coast-to-coast trip, I'll probably just head straight toward Pennsylvania and bypass the South/Southwest for now. If I hear from folks there, I'll stop to meet them on the way back to Portland in a 4-6 weeks (loose guess).

None of the magic that happened here in the last ten days has fallen through. When I return, there will still be jobs, art, and old friends.

A quick search of monster.com showed 11 full-time jobs in my career field here, and dozens more outside of my niche that I'd be comfortable doing. That doesn't include available work through project contractors or private consulting/contracting.

I really doubt I'm going to find anything better back East, but I'm keeping an open mind. As Fred wisely pointed out, my excitement about Portland might have nothing to do with Portland -- it may just be excitement at being outside of Anchorage for the first time in years.

I could, as my brother suggested, just leave my truck here and fly to PA for the visit, but Fred's point of view is valid -- I think I need to see more of what's left of America before I make the PDX decision final.